Reputation Armor

Defamation is often referred to as “defamation of character”, is spoken or written words that fallaciously and harmfully reflect on a living individual’s reputation. Slander and libel are 2 examples of defamation. Slander is a spoken defamation, while libel is a written defamation.

Can a law suite be filed against someone who defames me?

In order to prove defamation, you have to be able to prove that what was said or written about you was fake. If the information is true, or if you gave permission to the publication of the material, there is no case. However, you may bring a defamatory action if the comments are so horrible and false that they effect your reputation.

What about insults, do they fall under the terms of being defamatory?

Usually, in litigation, they are seen as a sudden occurrence of passion, with no real essence.

Okay, so do I have a right to convey my opinion as well?

As long as your statement of opinion is just an opinion, and does not contain unambiguous facts that can be proven as fallacious, then yes.

What are the cases for defense to defamation?

Ascertaining the truth is the single most effective defense that can be offered. If the statement is truthful there is little you can do. Unfortunately, unless the remark is false, you have no recourse.

What are the defenses to a libel claim?

There are three core defenses to a libel claim.

The first is claiming, and proving, that the statement was privileged (not public). Only certain professions (doctors, attorney, psychologists), or individuals (predominantly your spouse) can preserve that concession; and if any non-privileged third party was part of the communication, the privilege no longer exists.

The second defense is proving that the statement is true.

The third defense is proving that the statement was an opinion, not a declaration of fact. Since this last defense is only as good as the weakest or worst, but still reasonable, misinterpretation, it’s not one you really want to rely on. There’s a world of difference between saying “I think she’s a scam,” and “she’s a scam”.

What damages can I receive for slander or libel?

If you have been defamed you may seek both actual damages, to recuperate the harm that you have suffered, and punitive damages to penalize the person who made the remark.

If the defamation improperly accused you of a crime or reflected on your profession, the Court or jury can assess the damages. For other types of defamation you must prove some actual damage to be able to recover.

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Reputation Armor notes that the Internet provides an abundance of opportunities, both positive and negative. The net at its core is actually very democratic, in that it allows anyone with access to utilize or exploit it as they see fit.  For this reason, online reputation management has become a key aspect for many individuals and companies.

Reputation management boils down to tracking a brand’s actions and other entity’s opinions about those actions. In other words, Reputation Armor looks at is as searching for what a brands are doing and what others think about it. The other side of the online reputation management coin is to combat any and all negative search engine results

Over the years Reputation Armor has observed a consistent evolution of online reputation management; the constant foundation has remained to overcome and eradicate negative results. Through the progression of reputation management Reputation Armor has always strived to be on the forefront of bright, innovative techniques.

Reputation Armor on the Escalation of Review and Complaint Sites

Reputation Armor notes that more than ever before, it’s a trouble-free process for an individual to post slanderous, false, and hurtful information. In the past, in order to harm a brand’s reputation, an individual would have been forced to use a print service such as a newspaper to spread negative information. But in this day and age, an anonymous complaint can be posted by anyone with access to the net. The majority of Reputation Armor clients have come to us because their online reputations have been in some way injured. The other segment recruit reputation armor to proactively manage their online reputation before damage is done.

The Reputation Armor Online Reputation Management Solution

Reputation Armor uses a number of methods to combat slanderous and inaccurate search results for our clients.  The outcome of reputation armor s online reputation management service is top ranking positive search engine results as well as insulation that keep new negative links at bay. In order contest negative information by producing positive content, reputation armor deploys what is known to the reputation management industry as Reverse Search Engine Optimization. The objective is to produce enough positive information to drown out the negative. An Online Reputation Management Campaign is an intricate, time consuming process, but the return on investment is well worth it.

Reputation Armor has spearheaded hundreds of successful reputation management campaigns.

To learn more about Reputation Management,

Visit ReputationArmor.com or call 888-358-ARM

Reputation Armor knows good name can be worth millions, and we all know by now what happens when a first-class name gets into bad trouble. Tiger Woods is only one example of how imperative your reputation is, and how effortless it is to damage it.

The online world has fashioned a new area of law in this age of Web 2.0. It’s called Online Reputation Management Law, as reputation armor sees it, it hovers right around the law of defamation, freedom of speech, privacy law, copyright law, and trademark law. It also involves the non-legal (but equally as important) fields of public relations and crisis management. Many of the legal issues in this area involve Facebook, which has over 350,000,000 users, (including about 90% of all the middle school and secondary school students you and your colleagues teach every day. You might be a Facebook user as well.)

If someone says or publishes something about another person that is untrue, not otherwise privileged, and this damages the other person’s reputation, this may well amount to defamation and legal consequences may follow. “online” publication of defamatory statements on Facebook, Twitter, or on blogs is still publication. Reputation Armor asks this question, what if the damaged reputation is self-inflicted? Although there are things that older adults may share with others in more private ways, there has never been a generation so willing to share their innermost feelings, their outrageous opinions and their inappropriate photographs than the under-25 age group who make up the mainstay of Facebook. Reputation armor hears stories about the things 15- to 18-year-olds post on Facebook. Many of these people don’t seem to understand how the comments and photos they post can be publicly accessible, profoundly inappropriate, and, in the future, career-limiting.

Reputation Armor continuously tells clients: “Clean up your Social Networking Sites”

So here are a few legal and practical things that Reputation Armor thinks might interest you.

Reputation Armor Tips and Thoughts

1. Social networking sites can retain cached archives of everything everyone posts, even if it’s deleted 60 seconds after being posted.

2. Any posting can be saved to another’s computer by an easy screen shot. And any photograph on can be dragged to another’s desktop and circulated to others by e-mail, even though it may have been removed from the original poster’s page. Digital pictures pulled can be Photoshopped and otherwise manipulated in very bad ways.

3. Reputation Armor has noted before that Insurance company investigators frequently check pages of those they are investigating, sometimes posing as an old high school friends, or friends of friends so they can surreptitiously see the page and confirm or deny the claim4. Social Networking pages can be evidence and can be the subject of cross examination, even though a defendant had made his page as private as possible.

4. A court in New York City forced Google (as owner of a particular blogging website), to disclose the name of an anonymous blogger who arguably defamed a prominent model; the moral of the story being that no one is anonymous anymore. The defamed can always find the defamer.

5. Tweets on Twitter are searchable on Google, (so that tweets about how much an employee hates his/her boss can be found by that math teacher). Of course we don’t have that problem at Reputation Armor (because out boss is awesome….haha)

6. Users should limit the number of friends on such sites to real friends. If someone has 800 friends, one of them may be an insurance investigator, and another could be someone far, far worse.

7. This is actually viewed by reputation armor as the most important aspect: Privacy Privacy Privacy. Users should adjust their privacy settings so that only friends (and not “everyone”) can see what they have posted. And never allow “friends of friends” access. Although Facebook changed its privacy settings in December 2009, Reputation Armor have observed reports that show that 70% of users still have their settings set to “everyone can see everything,” possibly because they don’t know how the privacy settings work. And of course, Google sees it all.

8. Parents might want to monitor the social networking activities of their teens, but teens (understandably) don’t want to allow parent access as “friends.” Reputation Armor recommends a “designated driver”; a young adult the teen and the parent both trust, and who won’t contact parents about questionable postings or photos (but will call up the teen).

9. Finally, you shouldn’t post pictures or comments you wouldn’t want your mother, grandmother, or future employer to see, because one day soon, they will.

Internet slander is on the increase, and with it, an assortment of questions about what slander truly is, and is not.

These explanations are what we understand to be true, but if you are considering a defamation case in a court of law you are going to want to check with an attorney that specializes in this legal area. Reputation Armor offers reputation management and our objective is to be of assistance to people dealing with online slander.

Defamation: Also called Defamation of Character.

Spoken or written words (commentary) on a living person that affects his or her reputation. It can be in regard to business or have personal implications. If a blog, website, or forum publishes something harmful about you that damages your reputation, defamation has occurred. Both libel and slander are forms of defamation of character.

In most states you have to actually suffer a financial loss in order to have cause for legal action.

Slander:

Slander is when someone says something negative about you, with spoken words. Internet libel is frequently confused with internet slander, but slander primarily means the spoken word. If I say something negative about you to all of my friends that hurts your business and is 100% not true, this is slander.

Libel

Libel is the written word, as well as the recorded word. As a rule this includes radio and television broadcasts. If a reporter says something about you that is false, it is classified as libel. This also generally includes written reviews on blogs and forums, as well as review websites like RipOffReport.com, ComplaintsBoard.com and several others.

Can you Sue for Internet Slander / Libel?

Someone has posted lies and harmful articles about you online and you want to know if you can make them pay for damages. The answer is maybe (But Not Likely). Many product review websites, like RipoffReport.com, My3Cents, Yelp, Complaints Board, and the rest are all protected by a law called The Communications Decency Act ( or “CDA,” : 47 USC 230), which completely protects website owners from being held libel for content created by their website users.

Could you possible sue the actual person that generated the content? Perhaps, if you knew who they were and could prove they did it without a doubt. The problem is that website owners don’t (By Law) have to divulge this information to you, nor do they have any responsibility to log any user info like IP addresses and email addresses. Identifying who to sue can be an issue when it comes to most the review sites.

Does a person have a right to speak their opinion?

Completely, it’s a privileged right that we all have, and  it is a constitutional right. However, an opinion must remain an opinion and be stated as such. It should never include detailed facts that can later be proven fictitious.

Can a person defend defamation in court?

If you sue someone for defamation (libel or slander) and they demonstrate in court that what they said or wrote is true, you’re going to lose your case. Just because something is embarrassing or upsetting isn’t enough. If it’s true, you shouldn’t sue. You’ll only lose time and money and then in the end, your case.

Can I remove internet slander / libel from offending websites?

Almost certainly not, except if you can prove that the website owner wrote it and that it was 100% untrue. If it was user generated content (Written By A Site User or Member) they do not have to remove the content, nor reveal to you who wrote that content. It’s all sheltered by the CDA (Communications Decency Act). Rip off report and its clones have more or less all declared that they will NEVER remove user generated content.

They are 100% protected by the CDA and the user generated content is the foundation for their hideous, little business model. The online complaints on their website are what drives more traffic to their website and makes them revenue in one way or another.

They are never going to remove those reviews. But we can help. If you or your company are suffering from internet slander or online libel, please contact Reputation Armor at 888-358-2766 and let us explain how we can remove negative information from the first few page of the search engine results.